Writing Guidelines

These guidelines are also available for download in DOC (Word) and PDF format. See also the department's Stylesheet for Citations, showing the proper format and usage for footnotes in papers (also available in DOC and PDF formats).

Use a person’s full name the first time you refer to him or her.After that, use the last name: “Mary Wollstonecraft,” then “Wollstonecraft.”

** Plurals of names do not need apostrophes:

“The Smiths ate dinner,” NOT: “The Smith’s ate dinner.”

C. Numbers:

Spell out all numbers through one hundred (e.g. “sixty-five”), and all round numbers
that can be expressed in two words (“five thousand,” “one million”).

Write out all other numbers as figures: “The people ate 5,328 pounds of wheat.”

Exception: Spell out numbers that start sentences: “Ten students passed the exam.”

**Plurals of numbers do not have apostrophes:

RIGHT: “Most guests came in ones and twos.”

WRONG: “Most guests came in one’s and two’s.”

D. Quotation marks:

Punctuation almost always belongs inside quotation marks:

“The cat drank a cup of coffee.”

E. Paragraphs:

Paragraphs should have at least three sentences and should not go on for a full page
or more.

Paragraphs should not be separated by extra spaces. (In later versions of Microsoft
Word, look under Format>Paragraph to remove these additional spaces, which Word will
otherwise automatically insert).

2. STYLE TIPS

How to write clear, concise sentences:

A. Use the active voice, not the passive:

Active: “The king ate his subjects.”

Passive: “The subjects were eaten by the king.”

B. Put the action in the verb

Good: “The Committee for Public Safety had to approach it differently.”

Bad: “The establishment of a different approach on the part of the Committee for Public
Safety became a necessity.”

C. Avoid wordy phrases:

Wordy: “This paper will discuss issues concerning the matter of the decline of the Roman Empire.”

Less wordy: “This paper will discuss the decline of the Roman Empire.”

D. Reduce wordy verbs:

Wordy:Concise:

has knowledge ofknows

is takingtakes

are indications ofindicate

are suggestive ofsuggest

E. Reduce prepositional phrases

Prepositional phrases make your sentences more wordy than they need to be (see “wordy
verbs” above).Often, you can be more concise by using an apostrophe + s to denote possession of an object.

Too many: The writers of the eighteenth century in France wrote with pens of peacock feathers.

Better:France’s eighteenth century writers wrote with peacock feather pens.

F. Use fewer words where you can:

Instead of “subsequent to,” use “after.”

Instead of “as a consequence of this series of events,” use “therefore.”

G. Minimize or avoid “It is,” “There is,” “There were,” and the like.

Instead of “There were many factors that contributed to the Revolutions of 1848,”

In general, apostrophes are not used to indicate plurals: “The Smiths,” NOT “The Smith’s” to refer to a family called
Smith.

Apostrophes do not belong on dates or decades: “The 1800s,” NOT “The 1800’s.”

B. Bias vs. biased: The first is a noun, and the second is an adjective.

WRONG: “The author’s biased towards the Ottoman Empire is clear in this source.”

RIGHT: “The author’s bias towards the Ottoman Empire is clear in this source.”

WRONG: “It is clear that this source is bias in favor of the Ottoman Empire.”

RIGHT: “It is clear that this source is biased in favor of the Ottoman Empire.”

C. Contractions: avoid the use of contractions. Do not use them.

That’s right, we said “do not use them,” NOT “don’t use them.”

D. Comma splices, or run-on sentences. If a sentence that has two parts that could stand alone as sentence, you need to
either link them with a conjunction (“and,” “or,” “but”) or a semi-colon, or break
the two parts into two sentences.

WRONG: “This seems to be the case with Abu’Fazl Allami when he describes Akbar, he
writes about the leader with a tremendous level of fervor.”

RIGHT: “This seems to be the case with Abu’Fazl Allami when he describes Akbar; he writes about the leader with a tremendous level of fervor.”

ALSO RIGHT: “This seems to be the case with Abu’Fazl Allami when he describes Akbar. He writes about the leader with a tremendous level of fervor.”

E. Sentence fragments: Make sure each word group you have punctuated as a sentence contains a grammatically
complete and independent thought that can stand alone as an acceptable sentence.

WRONG: “Life in seventeenth century Europe was difficult for most people. With food
shortages, a countryside ravaged by war, and a complete lack of bubble-gum.”

RIGHT: “Life in seventeenth century Europe was difficult for most people. Some contributing
factors include food shortages, a countryside ravaged by war, and a complete lack
of bubble-gum.”

F. Inconsistent tense: Use verb tense consistently (all past tense or all present tense). Usually, the past
tense is most appropriate in a history paper.